I know we've paid him and he is not active, but why don't we replace him on the roster? He is not coming back, right?
Thats a good question but there's no hurry to release him unless they plan on picking up another player.
Bingo, If a team wants his contract for a player it is a straight up trade if they want the TE than we use that then buy out Sura. In a perfect world Sura would of come back and helped this team and we could of used the TE for a big man and then cut Padgett.
Bonzi (at $2 mil) is a way undervalued contract. We will never get equal value in return. If we trade Bonzi right now at face value, we'd get a Ryan Bowen in return. But if we trade Bonzi + Sura, then we could actually get something decent in return plus the receiving team could write off about $4-5 mil this summer.
Yeah, we can trade him for a contract with years left on it at the same rate, and the team we trade with gets that guy off their books at the end of this year. DD
I think Rox (at least admin) used to believe in Sura that he will come back; but now, Rox (at least JVG) gave up. THe only reason he is still on the roster might because we want to trade his expiring contract.
My understanding is that if the Rockets wait until Dec 1 - June 30th to apply for the Disabled Player Exception (DPE), they can get the DPE to use in signing a FA or make a trade for 50% of his salary until October 1. If they had applied between July 1 and November 30th, they'd have 45 days before they had to use it. His salary is 3.8 mil. If you use it in trade, you can add $100,000 to it, giving the Rockets 2 million we can use in trade, saving the other team money. By waiting, this gives us until October to do something with it. Of course, if he retires, his 3.8 mil comes off the books 1 year from his last game, which has already passed. But, if he retires, we lose that exception. http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#53 This has kept a roster space open, so if we add another player, we also won't have to cut someone, who's getting a salary. <a href="http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#19">For more on exceptions</a> ...
Yes, this is the reason he is on the team right now. This will give the rockets to pick up free agent this off season.
exactly why he's still here. that and what DD said (expiring contract = tradable asset). i think that we will use the TE, at least a portion of it, to bring in someone this season. in the summer our MLE might be used on bonzi leaving us with only a late draft pick and the LLE. a $2M TE would really help.
